Kailash Vijayvargiya to blame for mess, say some in BJP

A section of BJP functionaries pointed out that there was ‘absolutely no need to dirty its hands in Uttarakhand.’

Resentment is brewing against BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Grappling with humiliation and embarrassment, a section of BJP functionaries pointed at Mr Vijayvargiya for “misleading” the party high command on the Uttarakhand issue. Some functionaries in the party are now branding him as the “architect of the Uttarakhand mess”.

Mr Vijayvargiya, in charge of West Bengal elections for the BJP, was also being accused of being “missing from the action” as the party continued to struggle to find a foothold in the ongoing polls in Ms Mamata Banerjee’s bastion.

With Assembly elections slated for next year, a section of party functionaries pointed out that there was “absolutely no need to dirty its hands in Uttarakhand”. They argued that the Congress was already going through a crisis following the rebellion of nine of its MLAs and the BJP should have “waited and watched”. They held Mr Vijayvargiya responsible for the “entire mess” and alleged that it was he “who misled the party and claimed that the BJP can form a government in the state”.

Even as the Supreme Court stayed the Uttarakhand high court order, the entire development has scarred the saffronites somewhat. A section felt the BJP should have learnt its lesson from the “self-goals” it scored in Delhi and Bihar. In Delhi, the party kept deferring elections, thinking it could break the Congress and AAP and form a government. In Bihar, the party propped up JD(U) dissident leader Jitan Ram Manjhi to take on Mr Nitish Kumar. Both moves blew up in its face. After changing the Arunachal Pradesh government, the BJP high command was reportedly lured by Mr Vijayvargiya to try its luck in Uttarakhand, a senior functionary said.

Though the party put him in charge of Bengal, mainly to play the Hindutva card in the state, he apparently was “too busy with his government formation plans in Uttarakhand”. A senior party functionary drew a parallel with the other BJP general secretary, Mr Ram Madhav, who was in charge of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. “Ram Madhav managed to deliver on both fronts,” the functionary pointed out. Bengal is now left to co-incharge Siddharth Nath Singh, who had claimed that the party would bag at least eight Assembly berths.

This particular section of BJP leaders also pointed out that Mr Vijayvargiya had been “embarrassing” the party not merely with political moves but also with “uncalled for remarks”. Mr Vijayvargiya, who was a minister in Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Cabinet in Madhya Pradesh, was brought to Delhi by the party high command. He was made party in-charge for the Haryana polls where the BJP, for the first time, formed government on its own. After the victory, his supporters had put up posters and hoardings in Haryana hailing him as “Haryana ke hero (Hero of Haryana)”. It may be recalled that the Congress government in Haryana was suffering from 10-year anti-incumbency and at that juncture the Modi wave had gripped the country. Both the INLD and RLD stood discredited and a “change with a new alternative was inevitable”, a BJP leader claimed.